PSYC 2060

Research and Quantitative Methods in

Psychology

Session 1

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 PSYC2060
• Teaching team

• Learning-outcome objectives
On completing this course, students will be better able to:
• identify appropriate statistical methods to apply to research questions;
• perform appropriate statistical procedures to analyse data and interpret the results;
• report psychological research findings; and
• evaluate psychological research critically.
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Course topics and schedule

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 Learning components
• Lectures and class exercises - students can work on the class
exercises at their own pace

• Tutorials
• Textbooks
The assigned reading (textbook
chapters) for respective lecture
sessions can be found in the
course outline

• Assessments (Homework + quizzes)

Textbooks, lectures, and tutorials will be covered in the quizzes. For
textbook contents, only those topics that are also covered in
lectures/tutorials will be included.
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Assessment

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Moodle

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Download JAMOVI:
https://www.jamovi.org/download.html
Keep updating JAMOVI for newer features and delete older versions
For more information and tutorial videos:
https://datalab.cc/tools/jamovi
Manual:
https://www.jamovi.org/user-manual.html
Check out the blog for additional help:
https://blog.jamovi.org

• JAMOVI should be used for completing homework assignments

• In quizzes, students are expected to be able to comprehend and interpret the
outputs of JAMOVI for the statistical methods covered in this course.

Before your first tutorial, please:

• Download JAMOVI and install it on your computer(s), if you have not done so;
• Go through the “JAMOVI walk-through manual” (in Moodle) and/or "quick start
guide" (https://jamoviguide.com/) to familiarize or re-familiarize yourself as needed
on using JAMOVI to handle data files and compute basic descriptive statistics;
• Please discuss with your tutor if you have questions on the above.
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 Course policies
Please read carefully through Section 8 and 9 of the course outline, e.g.,
“Students must complete their homework assignments independently and submit
all assignments on schedule. Students must work independently on all quizzes.
Students must complete each quiz entirely on their own and must not communicate
with any classmates during the quiz.”
“The total mark of a belatedly submitted assignment (if accepted) will be reduced by
5% per calendar day lapsed. For assignments other than the final assignment,
submission more than six calendar days after the deadline will not be accepted (i.e.,
if a student does not submit the assignment before the 7th day after the deadline,
the assignment will receive zero mark). For the final assignment, submission after
the deadline will not be accepted (i.e., if a student does not submit the final
assignment before the deadline, the assignment will receive zero mark).”
“The application of GenAI, if any, in submitted work should be properly
acknowledged. Submitting any GenAI output, in part or in whole, for homework
assignments without explicit referencing (to indicate that the contents concerned
are generated by the GenAI sources) will constitute plagiarism”

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 Hypothetico-deductive approach
(a scientific research process)

Discussion Introduction

Results

Source: Wikieducator Method 9

 Key concepts
• Variable: a property of objects/events that can take on
different values (Howell)
• Independent/predictor variable – a variable hypothesized/assumed to
be affecting another variable
• Dependent/outcome/criterion variable – the variable
hypothesized/assumed to be affected

• Hypothesis: a potential relationship(s) between at least two

variables (Jackson)
Which of the following propositions fit(s) this specification of hypothesis?

1. Students who eat breakfast perform better on a research methodology quiz than students who
do not eat breakfast
2. Motorists who talk on the phone while driving will more likely make errors on a driving course
than those who do not talk on the phone while driving
3. Cats make better pets than dogs.

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 Typical data structure
The data sets for analyses in psychological research are often
organized in the form of case (row) by variable (column) matrices.
1. What is the operating system of your computer? 1. Apple macOS; 2. Microsoft
Windows; 3. Linux; 4. Others
2. In what year was the computer purchased? _____
3. What was the purchase-price range of the computer? 1. HK$5,000 below; 2. HK$5001 -
HK$8000; 3. HK$8001 - HK$10,000; 4. Above HK$10,000
4. What is the storage capacity of the computer (in gigabytes)? _____
5. How satisfied are you with the computer? (Integer ratings from 1 to 7: 1. very
dissatisfied; 7. very satisfied) _____

Qu.1 Qu.2 Qu.3 Qu.4 Qu.5

1 2021 4 512G 4
2 2022 3 512G 6
2 2019 3 1000G 5
1 2020 2 256G 3
2 2020 1 256G 5
3 2018 2 1000G 4 11
 Level of measurement
Measurement can be defined as the act of assigning
numbers to characteristics of objects/events according to
predetermined rules. Variables can have different levels of
measurement:
• Nominal: scores are category labels, conveying no sense
of order or quantity, e.g., gender, food category
• Ordinal: scores convey the order of the measured
quantity, but unit intervals on the scale are not
equivalent, e.g., ranks of runners in a race
• Interval: scores supply ordinal information and all unit
intervals on the scale are equivalent, e.g., calendar year
in AD (Anno Domini)

• Ratio: an interval scale that has a meaningful zero, e.g.,

weight, time to complete a task.
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 Level of measurement
Knowing the level of measurement helps us to
• interpret the scores of a variable; and
• determine the statistical method(s) that is/are
appropriate for analyzing the data for a given context.

(Adopted from Cumming

& Calin-Jageman)

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 Level of measurement
• The classification of scales by measurement levels
may be ambiguous, e.g.,

• Scores from a single-item rating scale mostly do not

display the characteristic of equal unit intervals. Scores
obtained from a multiple-item summated rating scale
are often treated as if they are interval data.
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 Example
(Goldberg et al., 2006)

Hypothetical rating items for measuring artistic

interests quantitatively
• Believe in the importance of art
• Like music
• See beauty in things that others might not notice
• Love flowers
• Enjoy the beauty of nature
• Like poetry
• Like going to art museums
• ...
• …
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 Measures of central tendency
(Commonly used ones)

Mean • Only applicable to interval and ratio data

• Sensitive to extreme scores in the data set
Median • Applicable to ordinal, interval, or ratio data (but not to
nominal data)
• Less sensitive to extreme scores (relative to the mean)
Mode • Applicable to data at all levels of measurement
• May not necessarily reflect a central tendency (for
ordinal, interval, or ratio data)

Example: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 11 Note the level of

measurement of
the scores

1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5
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 Measures of variability / dispersion
(Commonly used ones)

(for a sample)

(for a sample)

(Source: Howell)

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 Variance and standard deviation (example)

Variance = 21.2

(Source: Caldwell)

Here the five scores are taken as a population.

If the five scores are taken as a sample of a large population, the sample standard
deviation formula should be applied
Sample variance = sum of squared deviations / (n - 1) = 106/4 = 26.5
Sample SD = SQRT (26.5) = 5.15
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 Z score
The z score of a raw score in a data set is the distance of the data point
from the mean in standard deviation (SD) units

X = a raw score
 = the mean of a set of scores that include X
 = the SD of the scores

Examples: Variable Mean SD raw score z score

A 4.5 2.1 9.33 (9.33 - 4.5)/2.1 = 2.30
B 90 10 80 (80 - 90)/10 = -1.00
C 75 4 75 (75 - 75)/4 = 0.00
D 81 2.5 79 (79 - 81)/2.5 = -0.80
E 4.5 2.1 1.67 (1.67 - 4.5)/2.1 = -1.35

• The absolute value of a z score: the distance between the raw score and
the mean in SD units
• The sign of a z score is negative when the raw score is below the mean and
positive when the raw score is above the mean.
 Z score
• The z score of a score can be used to locate it in a
distribution of data (e.g., the standing of a student’s
performance on a test within his/her class)
• Z scores provide a means for comparing scores from
different variables
• Z scores can be applied meaningfully only for interval or
ratio variables
• We can calculate and apply z scores (so long as we
interpret them correctly) even for a set of scores that
are not normally distributed – the application of z scores for normally
distributed data will be discussed in the next session.

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